Ninian Edwards

Ninian Edwards (17 March 1775-20 July 1833) was Governor of the Illinois Territory from 11 June 1809 to 6 October 1818 (preceding Shadrach Bond), a US Senator from Illinois from 3 December 1818 to 4 March 1824 (preceding John McLean), and Governor of Illinois from 6 December 1826 to 6 December 1830 (succeeding Edward Coles and preceding John Reynolds). He was a Democratic-Republican.

Biography
Ninian Edwards was born in Montgomery County, Maryland in 1775, the son of Benjamin Edwards. He moved to Nelson County, Kentucky in 1794, and he served one term in the Kentucky House of Representatives. He went on to work as a judge and a Democratic-Republican presidential elector, and President James Madison appointed Edwards to serve as Governor of the Illinois Territory from 1809 to 1818. Edwards oversaw the state's transition to democratic government and then to statehood in 1818, and he served as one of Illinois' inaugural US Senators from 1818 to 1824. He then returned to the governorship from 1826 to 1830, and he died in 1833.